Monday, August 31, 2015

Hello everyone! How have you all been? This week has been great! We contacted a lot and met a lot of less actives. It's been great because we had the miles this month to go out to Winneconne, Omro, and Ripon. We were able to meet with a less-active woman, Sis. B and her four kids. I love this family. I just want them to all get baptized and be a forever family! But we went over with their home teacher and he gave them all blessings before school starts this week. The spirit was thick. And it was cool because the kids' friends were there and they were asking us a ton of questions about the church. We did some tracting this week (when do we not tract?? haha) and we met Chad and Carey--who are AWESOME. Actually, we went back to this neighborhood to check up on some potentials and we decided to stop by the frog house from last week cause there were cars in the driveway. Chad immediately invited us into his home and we were able to talk to him and his wife, Carey, about the church. They were very open and we left them with a prayer. Probably one of the most spiritual experiences I've had tracting. Sis. Coley offered the most sincere and spirit-lead prayer. Afterwards, C & C were both in awe. I have lots of hope for them :)

We went to Winneconne this week and visited with the Kuhns. This great older couple in the ward. Brother Kuhns said that every family needs to have their own Sacred Grove! I love this. It's true. And not only every family, but every human needs their own Sacred Grove. A place to go to ponder and pray and just be. A place that you can feel the spirit. I just thought that was a really great idea. So I challenge you all to find a "sacred grove" for yourself! :)

Monday, August 24, 2015

Ayy! How's everyone doing? Short on time so here's what went down this week:

Monday: Pretty tame p-day. Went to qdoba and got SOAKED in the rain. So that was fun.

Tuesday: I don't remember

Wednesday: The Elder's (well, Elder Kelly) made us breakfast and it was amazing. We had a REALLY wonderful lesson with a recent convert, Paige, and her hub Andy. The spirit in their home is unbelievable. Andy said something profound and I have to share. We were talking about the sacrament and he said, "an altar is where heaven and earth and time and eternity meet". BOOM. Think about that one. Also had a great lesson with our investigator Katlin. She's really great and we set a bap date with her!! September 26 :) We are really excited about it.

Thursday: Weekly planning. Always a great time. We went over to the Thompson's later that evening for the yummiest dinner on their rooftop with the Elders. I love the Thompson's.

Friday: Went to the Irazzary's. They are so cute. It's been what they call an "indian summer." Low 60's one day then 90 the next. It's been interesting. But I'm not complaining.

Saturday: Sister training leaders came. Sister Cook and Sister Karlsson. What champs. We did the farmer's market in the morning and it was actually very successful! We met a girl named Cassie and we have an appointment with her at the family history center this Thursday!

Sunday: No investigators showed up to church, but Sister A, Sis. J, and Sis. B all came and it was great. Gotta stay positive. Elder D gave his goodbye talk. It was a great day.

Favorite chapter this week: 2 Nephi 2. Read it. Love it. Live it.

Lots of love to you all :)

Sister Quist

So Elder Kelly is a saint and insisted on making us breakfast on Wednesday. We're talking bacon, eggs, biscuits, french toast. The whole 9-yards. It was fantastic.

This is my anxious face. I guess? I wouldn't hold the frog so I made Sis. Coley put it on the BoM so I could get a pic with it. Then I threw it off aggressively cause it scared me.

frog part 2 - action shot

a pic in a fire truck from our week with our mini missionary, Sister W

Monday, August 17, 2015

Hope you are having a wonderful morning. What the heck, I can't believe school starts this week!! You know, it's really weird to realize that this time last year I was starting my freshman year of college. Now I'm living in Wisconsin. Crazy. So this week was pretty good. I'm honestly just feeling a little discouraged as far as investigators go. Quincy hasn't been to church in forever. So we'll have to move his bap date back (if he even wants to get baptized still...). Ashley is awesome. We didn't see her this week, and she didn't come to church. But we expected that because we're pretty sure she was out of town. So Oshkosh is sometimes cool and has outdoor concerts with pretty decent people. Andy Grammar and American Authors were here this past week. We were out tracting and the elders called us and were right outside the concert. So we got a little sneak peak through the phone. Silly. Right after that though we met this super cool woman, Heidi. She is really awesome and seems so prepared. She got remarried last year and said they've been having a hard time blending their family. Well, the gospel can help with that!! So we're pretty stoked to go back and teach her more tomorrow. We decided that there is no way that this ward is not going to grow any more until we take care of those who are lost. Which is SO MANY. So many less actives. It's so sad. So that's where we have to step in. We stopped by one of my favorite less actives, Roberta (who came to church last week--yay!!), on Saturday and she wasn't home, BUT her daughter who just moved here answered the door. She is 21 and pregnant and wow. She's super cute. She's less active too. We stayed and chatted about life and got to know her for like and hour. Here's my thing. I want to be her friend. I really do, but where do I draw the line from being friend and being a bold missionary. I don't want her to get too comfortable with me where she disregards what I have to say, you know?? I just want to be cool and also powerful. I'm trying to find the balance. We met this guy last week and set up a return appointment with him. When we went, he wasn't there :( But it was right by a less active's house that we haven't stopped by in a while. So I felt prompted to stop by. She wasn't home, but her 14 year old daughter was. We talked with her fora little bit and committed her to come to church. We arranged for her to ride with a member and told us if she didn't need a ride to call us. So she called us Sunday morning and told us that she didn't need a ride because her mom and brother's were going to be coming too!! It was such a blessing to see their family walk in together and finally meet the less active woman. We were able to set up an appointment with them for tonight. So pray that goes well :) What else happened this week... I don't even know! Well, I started the BoM over again. So I'm currently in 1 Nephi 19. I think one of my fave chapters is 1 Nephi 17. Verse 21 reminds me of the quote in our kitchen that is instilled in my soul haha-- "We tend to seek happiness when happiness is actually a choice"! OH MY GOSH. Here's what happened this week. Well first of all our car had to go in again, so we walked all day Wednesday and Thursday. That was nice. And second of all our a/c has been not working this whole summer. So it's been blazing hot and muggy here this past week and so I finally got fed up with it and we took it into the dealer. They said it would be at least 30 minutes to diagnose. 20 minutes later, they came in to inform us of the culprit… a subway bag. Apparently this little bag has just been blocking our a/c vent. Ugh. So this whole summer the a/c has been FINE. 40 minutes later we were out of there with our a/c working like a charm.Sometimes I'm like, wow. This is THE longest day ever. Is it bedtime yet? But then I just realized that my 4 month mark is this week! Time is so precious and I'm just hoping that I am making some difference in someone's life. I just want to be an influence for good to someone. I know that as long as I'm being obedient and working hard,things will work out. Maybe I'm not seeing a million baptisms, but I am recognizing that God works in the most mysterious ways and He has a plan for all His children. I'm seeing that firsthand and it's incredible!Thanks for the love and support and prayers! I have the best people. Xo,

Sister Quist

Me and my cute Jessica last Monday! Saying bye before she heads to Snow College :(

Spiders for days. More like, mutant spiders for days!! I'm actually pretty positive that WI has more spiders than anywhere else in the world.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Sorry for the short note this week. But all is well! This has hands down been one of the toughest weeks of my mission. Sunday couldn't have come soon enough. But when it did, it was awesome. I started getting teary as we sat singing the sacrament hymn. I couldn't help but feel overwhelmingly grateful for my Savior. Especially as I sat next to our investigator, Ashley. We were able to see her Saturday night and after a month of not getting a lesson with her, her mom invited us in and we were able to have a great impromptu lesson with her and Sis. Coley was able to invite her to be baptized. She declined (very politely) and said it was too big of a commitment to make right now. We assured her that we will love her (obvi) and committed her to come to church. She was able to come and as I sat there with her I just felt so much love for her and for my Savior.

In other news, I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission this week! More than anything I know that the Book of Mormon is true. That it softens hearts and brings the kind of joy that cannot come any other way. There is nothing better than the feeling of peace and surety that comes from reading the pages of the Book of Mormon. The happiness that comes from this gospel is true and eternal. I know that now more than ever! Treasure your families. Keep them close and give them hugs every day!

The church is true.

Peace and blessings,

Sister Quist

p-day outing to the EAA Museum with the Hmong and Oshkosh Elders and the YSA Sisters

Monday, August 3, 2015

Howdy! So on Wednesday I got my new companion, Sister Coley!! She is from Arizona and is brand new to Wisconsin. She has a very strong testimony and already loves the people so much! She's really cool and I'm excited to get to know her better. We teach really well together (for only being with each other for five days), which I'm grateful for. Also we have a girl from the ward, Sister W, who will be a "mini missionary" with us for the week. So it's like I'm training two new missionaries!

In other news, this week we were walking a lot! We have a certain amount of miles we can use for each month and we were basically out, so we did a lot of walking. But it's okay because we got to talk to so many people. I can definitely say that I have a testimony of walking because of how many people we share the gospel with!

Just a few exciting things that happened this week.

1. WE SET A BAP DATE WITH QUINCY! Yes, Quincy. The man who doesn't commit to anything and who hasn't budged on baptism since forever. So we extended the date of September 5th and he said that he could strive for that date. HOLLA! So be praying for him :) Unfortunately he didn't show up at church (again). He's still reading the BoM every day though which is awesome.

2. While out walking Friday night we met a guy named Steve. We taught him a little bit about the Restoration and about the Priesthood and he said that he would convert from Lutheran to Mormon if "he could be healed from his diabetes". Oh brother. We explained that while the priesthood power definitely can heal, God gives us certain trials in our lives that we just have to deal with. He seemed moderately interested after that. BUT plot twist, he showed up at church yesterday with his daughter!! We sat with him through Sacrament meeting and afterwards he said he enjoyed it. He tried staying for second hour, but his 1.5 year old daughter was fussy, so he left. Still, though, it was awesome that he showed up. I was just praying that someone would come to church yesterday. We invited so many people to come and I knew that the Lord would prompt someone to come. It was an answer to my prayers.

I was reading this morning in Matthew 10, and this is when Christ calls the Twelve Apostles. Right after he calls them he not only tells them that they need to go preach the gospel, but commands them to. In verse six it says, "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel". There is such a need for this whole world to hear the message of this gospel. Such a need to preach the gospel to everyone, all the lost sheep in the world! Then a couple verses later in verse fourteen in says, "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house of city, shake off the dust of your feet". Unfortunately lots of people don't like us and don't give us the time of day. BUT I'm learning to not get discouraged. I'm learning to just "shake off the dust". Because I know that when I get discouraged my faith weakens and without faith miracles won't happen!

Much love to you all!

XO,

Sister Quist

volleyball with the women of the ward. of course sis. straight and I wore our matching skirts!!

weekly planning selfie

The trio for the week

So grateful for Sister Cutler (Maren's Mission President's wife), who is so diligent in keeping current the mission blog... Love her for that!